I had the strongest possible reasons for distrusting a
meeting with my enemy, Screw. He would certainly be made use of by
the officers for the purpose of identifying the companions whom he had
betrayed; and I had the best reasons in the world to believe that he
would rather assist in the taking of me than in the capture of all the
rest of the coining gang put together--the doctor himself not excepted.
My present costume was of the dandy sort--rather shabby, but gay in
color and outrageous in cut. I had not altered it for an artisan's suit
in the doctor's house, because I never had any intention of staying
there a day longer than I could possibly help. The apron in which I had
wrapped the writing-desk was the only approach I had made toward wearing
the honorable uniform of the workingman.

Would it be wise now to make my transformation complete, by adding to
the apron a velveteen jacket and a sealskin cap? No: my hands were
too white, my manners too inveterately gentleman-like, for all artisan
disguise. It would be safer to assume a serious character--to shave
off my whiskers, crop my hair, buy a modest hat and umbrella, and dress
entirely in black. At the first slopshop I encountered in the suburbs of
the town, I got a carpet-bag and a clerical-looking suit. At the first
easy shaving-shop I passed, I had my hair cropped and my whiskers taken
off. After that I retreated again to the country--walked back till I
found a convenient hedge down a lane off the highroad--changed my upper
garments behind it, and emerged, bashful, black, and reverend, with my
cotton umbrella tucked modestly under my arm, my eyes on the ground, my
head in the air, and my hat off my forehead. When I found two laborers
touching their caps to me on my way back to the town, I knew that it was
all right, and that I might now set the vindictive eyes of Screw himself
safely at defiance.

I had not the most distant notion where I was when I reached the High
Street, and stopped at The Green Bull Hotel and Coach-office. However,
I managed to mention my modest wishes to be conveyed at once in the
direction of Wales, with no more than a becoming confusion of manner.

The answer was not so encouraging as I could have wished. The coach to
Shrewsbury had left an hour before, and there would be no other public
conveyance running in my direct ion until the next morning. Finding
myself thus obliged to yield to adverse circumstances, I submitted
resignedly, and bo